8 Biggest Ever Wrestler-Management Disputes In History

3. Ric Flair And Jim Herd

Ric Flair was to WCW what Hulk Hogan was to WWE. Despite this, Flair regularly clashed with WCW's Vice President Jim Herd over a number of issues. The best of which in hindsight, was Herd's attempt to have Flair drop the 'Nature Boy' gimmick, cut his trademark blonde hair and adopt a Roman Gladiator persona named Spartacus in order to "change with the times." Herd saw Flair's days as a main event star behind him and wanted to push the likes of Sting and Lex Luger instead. While renegotiating his contract, Herd tried to get Flair to take a pay cut, Flair rejected. He also rejected dropping the title to Luger as he started to fade away from the main event slots in WCW. Flair cited the fact that he and Herd had agreed that Sting would be the man to take the title. Despite this, Herd wasn't bothered what had been previously agreed and ended up firing Flair, who was still champion and in possession of the physical championship belt. Flair called Vince McMahon and a deal was agreed which saw The Nature Boy send the WWE his championship belt to be used on television. Bobby Heenan started cutting promos with the title belt in hand. This drew great intrigue as the fans knew who the belt belonged to and what had happened with Flair and WCW. The whole situation blew up in Herd's face as WCW lost its biggest star and many of his fans to boot. Everyone who attended WWE events would get to see the dream match of Flair against Hogan. It turns out Flair was in his legal rights to take the title belt with him to the WWE because Herd refused to give Flair back the $25,000 deposit that the NWA required of every wrestler upon winning the World title to keep him from appearing in a rival promotion.